


To The Bone

by Spiderlily_Writes



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, FE3H Monsterfucking Weekend, Modern AU, Monsterfucking, Oral Sex, Spooky, Vaginal Fingering, mortal peril, pretend it isn't late, shhh - Freeform, ski trip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:34:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27385783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spiderlily_Writes/pseuds/Spiderlily_Writes
Summary: When Hilda gets caught in a snowstorm and separated from Holst and Balthus on a ski trip, she takes shelter in an abandoned cabin. Is it truly a place of safety, or is something more sinister pulling the strings?
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund/Hilda Valentine Goneril
Comments: 30
Kudos: 106





	1. Isolated

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! Here's the first chapter of my MariHilda monsterfucker weekend fic. The second chapter/half should be done here in a few days at most. Enjoy!

Hilda decided, in that moment, that this was absolutely the _last fucking time_ she was going skiing with Holst.

The skiing itself hadn’t been, like, _totally_ horrible, even if it was more exercise than Hilda liked. But everything surrounding it had been just a complete and total _ordeal_. Their room at the lodge was drafty, the bed felt like it was _maybe_ an inch thick, the food was subpar at _best_ , trudging around in the snow was a _massive_ pain, and to top it all off, Holst had been spending most of the trip trying to lick Balthus’s abs and leaving Hilda feeling decidedly like a very cute but ultimately neglected third wheel.

Usually, her singleness didn’t bug her all that much, but it was pretty inconsiderate of Holst to just _flaunt_ his boyfriend in her face like that. Just _rubbing_ it in, like an absolute dickhead.

But when Hilda had been dead certain that things couldn’t _possibly_ get any worse, she’d hit a buried log with one of her skis on the slope, snapped the damn thing in half, and gone tumbling out into the brush like the world’s tiniest, pinkest avalanche.

And then, once she’d finally righted herself and started walking, in a move that _had_ to be divine retribution for all the times Hilda skipped church as a kid by faking sick, it had started to storm. Snow blasted around her in a fashion less like how it snowed at home, and more like each individual snowflake was trying to jab out her eyes.

All told, she’d been on better vacations.

After wandering for about half an hour and not seeing any people, or even anything man made, Hilda began to get a little bit worried. The blizzard limited her visibility pretty severely; for all she knew, she could have been less than a quarter-mile from the lodge, but there was no way for her to tell. She was pretty sure she was moving in a straight line, and downhill to boot, so…eventually, she would reach the lodge, right?

Right?

She had to believe it. She really didn’t want to consider the alternative.

Hilda made it another fifteen minutes or so before the chill really began to set in.

Her parka—a very nice designer one—was actually way warmer than she had expected it to be. She’d been out on the slopes with Holst and Balthus for several hours, from lunch onward, and it took a good while before she had even started feeling the bitter cold.

Sure, the occasional gust of icy wind had managed to slide up her sleeve and make her jump, and a little snow had soaked through her pants and gloves, but overall, Hilda had managed to stay pretty well insulated. But the blizzard had changed that dramatically, and after being buffeted by the snow and ice for almost an hour, even her parka’s formidable defenses were beginning to crumble.

Hilda’s been cold before, obviously. She’s been to and from the bus stop on chilly days. She’s had a snowball fight or two. Her brother had dumped slush down the back of her shirt when she’s not looking. Just, like, standard stuff.

But the cold that Hilda started to feel as the blizzard mercilessly battering her was something else entirely.

The freezing gale that assaulted Hilda was a ripping, biting, tearing thing. It was the sort of cold that whipped across her eyes and froze her agonized tears to her lashes before they had a chance to fall. It was the kind of cold that starved for her life, that clawed into her flesh with serrated nails before traveling down to her guts and bones and wrapping around them, refusing to let go.

None of the pain slicing into her body scared her as much as the numbness, though, as she slowly began to lose feeling in her extremities. As she tried to wiggle her fingers and toes, she got no response at all. Snot ran pitifully down her nose and froze halfway to her lips, which she couldn’t feel either. She vaguely remembered some kind of first aid class in school where she learned about the effects of frostbite, but even her brain felt like it had been slowed to a stop by the chill.

In minutes, Hilda went from uncomfortable to nearly incapacitated, and it was at that point that Hilda began to consider the very real possibility that she was lost. That she wasn’t _ever_ going to make it back to the lodge.

Hilda stopped in her tracks as the realization struck her. She wasn’t going to make it back to the lodge. It seemed like such a logical, simple conclusion, that she wasn’t sure how it’d taken her so long to get there. She was getting colder by the second, her movements were more sluggish and less precise, and she wasn’t going to make it back to the lodge, and, most importantly she was _going to die._

Shivering, her teeth chattering, her vision blurring with yet more tears, she began to squat down in the snow. Hilda wasn’t entirely sure why she was doing it, other than that she was obeying some primal impulse to draw in on herself and preserve whatever warmth she could. Perhaps she would be rescued; maybe someone _would_ find her before she froze to death. That would definitely be nice. Slowly, far too slowly, she wrapped her arms around her knees, closed her eyes, and-

_“Hilda.”_

Her eyes snapped open, scanning her field of view. She heard her name. _Someone_ had just said her name. It had been barely more than a whisper, but she could hear it as clearly as if the speaker was mere inches away from her ear. The voice was soft, and feminine, and calm. Gentle, even. Part of her knew she was most likely delirious, but she was willing to take anything she could get at this point. Hell, maybe her brain was doing her a solid and giving her some nice hallucinations to listen to as she went.

“W-who…where?” she asked, and it was a struggle to move her mouth; it felt like her lips were frozen together. “Where are you?”

“ _Hilda. Just a little further, I know you can do it. Just a little further forward, there’s a safe place,”_ the voice assured her. It was so soft, and so lovely, and…well, would it hurt to just go a little further? Just a bit? It wasn’t like she had any pressing engagements in that one particular spot in the snow. She could die about ten feet over that way, if it made her hallucination happy.

Hilda summoned every bit of stubborn, furious, defiant strength that she had and forced herself to move. It was hard, one of the hardest things she’d ever done, but she managed to rise from her position on the ground and take a step forward. Then another. And a third. Her arms were still clenched tight around her, and every step against the howling wind felt like she was pushing a boulder uphill, but she managed. It was a few feet, and a few more, and eventually, a large, boxy shape came into view.

_“You’re doing so well, Hilda, you’re almost there,”_ the voice called, seemingly right in front of her, though she couldn’t see anybody. “ _You’re so, so close, please, just a little further!”_

She obliged, trudging painfully through the snow and wind, until she realized the true nature of the thing she saw before her.

It was a cabin, standing strong and firm against the blasting winds of the blizzard, and Hilda didn’t know if she’d ever been happier to see such a squat, ugly building in her entire life. The whole thing looked to be no larger than a one-bedroom apartment, but it seemed like it was in pretty good shape, and most importantly, it might keep her alive.

Hilda forced herself forward, step by step, her footfalls in the snow so _heavy_ that if she hadn’t known any better, she’d think Balthus and Holst were clinging to her ankles. It felt like it took her an hour to cross the twenty feet between the spot where the cabin came into view and the front door of the building. When she did though, in a stroke of luck that felt like divine intervention, she found the door to be unlocked. With one hard, desperate crank of the knob, she shoved it open and nearly fell to the floor inside.

The sudden absence of bitter wind caught Hilda off guard and destroyed her balance, as she suddenly didn’t need to fight so hard for forward momentum. She stumbled gracelessly across the threshold, turned around, and slammed the door shut behind her with all the force she could muster. The door rattled in its frame as she engaged the lock with a solid _click._ _“You did so well, Hilda,”_ her invisible stalker whispered. _“You’re safe now.”_

Hilda took a moment to assess the situation.

She was…alive. That was nice, and a pretty good place to start, though she was still really cold, and she knew that if she didn’t find some way to warm up pretty quickly, she’d still be in pretty serious trouble. While the cabin wasn’t nearly as cold as the outside, it wasn’t _much_ better. There clearly wasn’t any central heating, and she’d be surprised if there was even plumbing.

Looking around the room, she noted that the cabin was a little larger inside than it had initially appeared. There was no interior lighting, but some of the sunlight from outside managed to filter through the blizzard and in through the windows, giving her just enough to see by, and it would have to be enough. There was no sign of electricity at all, actually, but there _were_ a few candles arranged around the interior of the cabin in such a way that they might effectively illuminate the space if she had a way to light them.

She found herself standing in a kitchenette, one with a woodstove and what appeared to be an honest-to-Goddess icebox, the kind that actually needed ice to function. Just beyond that, there was a small room that she guessed had to be the living room, on account of the couch, rug, chair, and fireplace there. That room also contained a pretty sizable pile of firewood that could be used in the woodstove in the kitchenette, or in the fireplace set into one wall.

Fire. Yeah, okay, good place to start. She just needed to find a way to light it.

There were two doors beyond the living room, and no hallways to speak of. They were closed, and the idea of opening one of them sent a shiver down her spine that had nothing to do with the chill set into her bones. Anything could be behind them.

Now that Hilda’d gotten out of the cold and away from the _immediate_ danger, she began to consider how absolutely fucking _ludicrous_ this all was. She’d just followed a disembodied voice through the snow, out of a blizzard, into a mysterious, unlocked cabin in the middle of nowhere, that was apparently uninhabited but kept in pretty much perfect condition. And there were two doors across from her, and behind them could be _anything_. What if someone lived here? What if she just wandered into someone’s home? What if it was an _axe murderer’s_ home? What if there was like…some kind of monster, hiding here somewhere? Hilda stood there, staring at those closed doors, utterly paralyzed.

_“Hilda, if you don’t get warm, you’re going to die.”_

The voice spoke again, and Hilda _screamed_ , shattering the silence of the cabin and jerking to one side, reflexively, away from those doors, and nearly falling against the wall. “W-who are you?” she demanded through chattering teeth. “ _Where_ are you? What’s going _on_?” She could feel panicked tears beginning to form in her eyes once more.

“ _Please, Hilda, calm down,”_ her stalker said, and the voice sounded legitimately concerned. _“If I wanted you dead, I could have just left you out there. I just need you to do one more thing for me, and then you’ll be okay!”_

Well…Hilda supposed that was probably true. She would have absolutely died in that blizzard if the voice hadn’t urged her forward with a promise of safety. She hesitated.

“Okay, I guess, solid point,” she admitted, steadying herself. “What, then? Are you gonna tell me where I can find matches or something?”

_“No. That would take too long. You need warmth sooner than that, and you’ll find it when you go through the door on the right.”_

She took a step forward toward the living room, then stopped, realizing the foolishness of what she was doing. “What’s behind the door?” she demanded, crossing her arms and trying to keep herself from shivering. There came no response. It seemed almost like the mysterious voice was ignoring her on purpose, leaving her no choice but to do as she was told.

But, well, what other options did she have? And, really, what did she have to lose?

Step by unsteady step, Hilda crept toward the door that the voice had indicated. She tried to keep herself calm, tried to get her breathing under control, tried to do anything she could to dispel the slowly mounting dread within her, but none of it helped. Her trembling only got worse as she approached the entry to the next room, terrified of what might be beyond it, and by the time she reached the door, her heart was pounding so fast that it felt like it would pop.

Hilda closed her eyes, took a long, deep, trembling breath, and let it out in a silent prayer for safety. She reached for the knob with one shaking, uncertain hand, and twisted, gasping aloud at the sight beyond.

It was a bathroom, and in contrast to the rest of the cabin, it appeared as though it had been recently occupied—a fact which Hilda had to declare downright _spooky_. A pair of lit candles sitting on the sink illuminated the space just enough for her to make out some details, though it was still pretty dim, and she had to squint to see much of anything properly.

The room was dominated by a massive claw-footed bathtub that was set against one wall and, in a truly bizarre turn, she saw that the tub was full nearly to the rim with clear, blessedly steaming water. A towel hung on a rod bolted to the wall just above the tub, and a fuzzy blue mat was perfectly situated between the two feet that stood out into the small room. It wasn’t exactly something she would have seen in a home décor magazine, but it was comfortable and cozy nonetheless.

As she stepped inside and closed the door behind her, she felt the difference in the air. Where most of the cabin was cool and dry, the bathroom was humid and warm and it was everything Hilda wanted. Everything she _needed_ , at that particular moment, and her parka was already halfway off before her brain caught up to her body and she was forced to confront the weirdness of the situation yet again. She paused.

“Hey, weird spooky voice?” she called aloud, hoping that whatever it was could hear her. “Are you like…waiting for me to get naked so you can kill me or something?”

As before, there was no response.

“I’m just curious, cause I’d like to know. See it coming, you know? Give me a fair fighting chance, and all that? Cause if I’m naked, that makes it easier to kill me, I think,” she added, realizing the inanity of her statements moments after she made them. When no reply was forthcoming that time either, she decided it was probably best just to bite the bullet and get on with it. The voice _had_ been right, this _was_ going to help her feel better, but something about getting naked in a weird abandoned cabin just didn’t sit totally right with her.

Her parka came off the rest of the way, and Hilda set about removing the rest of her layers. It was difficult work, and between her numb fingers and the sheer amount of soggy, chilly fabric, it took her a couple of minutes to get everything off, but eventually, she stood naked before the bathtub. Hilda reached in, testing the water with one hesitant finger. It was pretty warm, though not boiling hot or anything, which was probably a good thing. She’d heard that getting _too_ hot after nearly freezing to death was either really dangerous, or bad for her pores, and neither sounded particularly good.

She stretched one leg up and over the rim of the tub, bringing her foot down into the water. It felt absolutely _blissful_ , and Hilda didn’t even bother trying to stifle a moan of pleasure at the sensation of the hot water against her chilled skin. She couldn’t move quickly enough after that, and she all but tumbled into the tub, displacing a pretty good amount of water in the process.

Almost immediately, she felt some of the tension in her muscles release, and it was as though she’d just finished a three-hour-long workout, complete with cooldown stretches. The balmy, soothing warmth enveloped her, and she sank down until only her chin was above the water, closed her eyes, and heaved a sigh of relief.

There was a sudden gust of frigid, nearly _arctic_ wind through the bathroom, and Hilda opened her eyes, momentarily panicked. Had the wall fallen down? Had the roof caved in? Was there a broken window? She scanned the space around her, but she couldn’t see anything save for a slight disturbance of the candles’ flames. The door to the rest of the cabin was still closed, too, and she forced herself to calm down. She’d already hallucinated once that day, no reason it couldn’t be happening again.

She actually snorted. Hilda Goneril, big fat scaredy-cat, jumping out of her skin for nothing. Holst would probably be giving her _so_ much shit right now. Hilda snuggled back down into the tub, folding her arms across herself and determined to enjoy her bath. She didn’t know how any of this was happening; hell, for all she knew, she was still out there in the snow, or even back in bed at the lodge, and this was all one big, weird dream.

The wind blew through the room again, leaving ripples across the surface of the water this time, and making it very clear that _something_ was going on. She peered over the rim of the bathtub to the floor, realizing she hadn’t looked down last time, and saw…

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Which, ordinarily, wouldn’t have been a big deal, but there definitely should have been a pile of her discarded clothes sitting there next to the tub, and those weren’t there either, though there was something, almost like a puddle, on the floor where they had been a moment ago. Hilda leaned out of the tub and looked closer, but it wasn’t until the spot caught the candlelight just right that she realized what it was.

Ice.

She looked away quickly and sank back down into the tub, as though it could protect her. Hilda hugged herself a little tighter, drew her legs up against her chest, and let her eyes flicker about the room from place to place, keeping watch for anything out of the ordinary. She wasn’t sure how any of this was happening, and it began to dawn on her, bit by bit, little by little, how much she was out of her _fucking depth_.

“H-hey! Stalker!” Hilda snapped, hating the tremor in her voice. “What the hell are you doing? This isn’t funny! Balthus, Holst, is this you guys, somehow? Are you fucking with me? Where are my clothes?”

This time, the voice wasn’t so ethereal when it replied. It didn’t sound far away or floaty, or like it was coming from every direction. This time, she felt the cold puff of air on her ear when she heard it, felt the presence behind her, felt eyes boring into her, and fingers like icicles reached up to cup her jaw from either side, holding her head firmly in place. Hilda yelped in surprise, and would have jumped up or turned around if not for the _thing_ keeping her still.

“Oh Hilda,” the voice sighed, piercing as the blizzard itself, obvious adoration bubbling up through the words. “You do not need to be afraid. I promise I’m going to take _very_ good care of you.”


	2. Warmth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hilda learns just what it is that's been following her around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! I have some more for you. This fic got....WAAAAAY out of hand, so I'm splitting the last "half", but I love how it turned out. Enjoy!

Hilda froze. Metaphorically. Though given how those fingers on her face felt, she wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d started to _literally_ freeze as well. There was something in the room with her, something speaking to her from behind, and she really wasn’t _totally_ sure how to handle that. So, she made what any rational person would do. Hilda screamed at the top of her lungs, jerked her head away, and scrambled to the other end of the bathtub as quickly as her body could move, then curled up against the curve of the basin as though the five-foot-long gulf between herself and her stalker would keep her safe. More of the water splashed out onto the floor, and she turned to look at whoever—or _whatever_ —had been standing behind her.

It was a woman. Or, at least, it _looked_ like a woman, but the longer Hilda stared, the less certain of that initial assessment she became. The creature was tall, maybe about six feet, and the first thing that jumped out at Hilda was just how _pale_ she was. It wasn’t just that she had really pale skin though, because Hilda had seen _that_ before; her ex’s best friend Hubert was so pallid that she’d have sworn she could see his bones on a sunny day.

Hilda shuddered as she realized the closest comparison she could make would be to a corpse. She’d seen corpses before, and that seemed _about_ right, but with a little more of a bluish tint, and not quite as gaunt. Most of its body was covered in what seemed like a loose, billowing silk robe that moved as though blown by a wind that Hilda couldn’t feel, and as her eyes travelled downward, she noted that it stopped around mid-thigh. Somewhere, deep in an unused corner of her brain, she noted that it was probably weird that she would pay attention to something like that in a situation like this.

She looked back up at the creature’s face, and she was surprised to find that it didn’t look…scary, actually. It looked like a normal young woman with light blue-grey eyes, a pretty little nose, and lips that were pursed together in a way that Hilda could only describe as ‘bashful.’ Its hair flowed free behind her, and was being gently tousled by that same unfelt wind that was disturbing her robe. The creature extended one hand across the tub, offering it to Hilda as though expecting her to take hold.

“Hilda, please,” it said, the words falling plaintively from between corpse-blue lips, a slight stammer creeping into them. Hilda wondered idly if being visible was the reason for the thing’s sudden lack of confidence. “I was t-telling the truth when I said I wanted to take care of you. I could have left you in the snow, i-if I wanted to hurt you! But I don’t want that at all!”

Hilda frowned skeptically, looking down at the offered hand. It was as deathly pale as the rest of her, and she could see that her nails were long and pointed, almost like talons. Blinking, Hilda also realized that she had, subconsciously, already stopped thinking of her stalker as an _it_ , and started thinking of her as _she_. Probably not good to humanize the spooky thing following her around, she considered, but it was a little late at that point.

She also realized she was like…totally, unashamedly bare-ass naked in front of the creature, and flung her hands up to cover herself, blushing. The creature flinched at her sudden motion, drawing her own hand back and clutching it close to her chest.

“Maybe…” Hilda said, drawing out the middle of the word as she spoke. “I…guess I do kind of owe you for helping me out of the blizzard. But what was with the whole creepy invisible stalker thing? I’m a lot more likely to follow a pretty girl than a disembodied voice, you know.”

The creature’s eyes widened and her lips parted in a little soundless gasp when Hilda called her pretty, but she recovered in a second or so. “W-well…I mean…That isn’t…” she began, clearly flustered. “I-I’m not human, you know, I mean, I think maybe I was once, but I’m not anymore, and I don’t want to scare people off!”

Leave it to Hilda to get haunted by the _awkward_ ghost-monster-girl-thing. Seemed like that was just her luck, somehow.

“Right. Okay, that makes sense,” Hilda said quickly, before her new friend could continue to ramble. “So, do you have a name? Or…like…something I can call you?”

The creature blinked, and frowned, as though she was trying to remember something she had forgotten a very long time ago. Her eyes, already somewhat distant, seemed to look through Hilda and beyond as she considered it. There was nearly a full minute of silence before her eyes brightened and she spoke, though she still sounded uncertain. “Marianne. I think. You can call me Marianne.”

“You think? Huh. Well. Alright, Marianne,” Hilda said, and Marianne almost seemed to _glow_ at the sound of her name. “You already know who I am, so-” She broke off mid sentence, realizing something. “Wait a minute. How _do_ you know who I am? You’ve been calling me by my name since I was out in the snow.”

Marianne seemed to grow visibly uncomfortable at Hilda’s question, and she fidgeted slightly, refusing to meet Hilda’s eyes. “Well…I’ve been watching you. I heard your companions call you by it. I-I’m sorry if that was intrusive.”

As she spoke, and as her discomfort became clearer and clearer, Hilda swore she could see little bits of ice begin to crystallize in the air around Marianne, while the room began to feel just a little bit cooler. It was mesmerizing, and she watched, curious, her eyes tracking one of the little motes of ice as it floated down into her bath. The moment it made contact with the water though, something _weird_ happened.

The water around the point of contact immediately froze solid, creating a chunk of ice about the size of Hilda’s closed fist. As it did, the temperature of the rest of the water dropped dramatically, and Hilda yelped as she felt as though she’d fallen out of a hot tub and into a pond in the middle of winter. More chunks of ice began to form as more motes began to hit the water, and when Hilda saw the trembling of Marianne’s lower lip, she realized what was happening.

The ice hadn’t begun to form in the air until Marianne got upset, and it struck Hilda, in that moment, that surviving the night might depend on her ability to keep Marianne calm and happy.

She put up her hands and spoke quickly. “No, no, Marianne! It’s okay, really, I was just curious. You weren’t intruding at all!”

Marianne, hands clasped over her heart, cast a shy glance down at Hilda. The ice stopped falling. “Really?” she asked. “You’re not upset?”

Hilda nodded, her theory confirmed. “Yeah, totally, it’s fine. I’m not mad at you, Marianne.”

The statement wasn’t a _lie_ , per se. True, it was _kinda_ weird that Marianne had been watching her with Balthus and her brother, but she couldn’t really find it in her heart to be mad about it. Marianne struck her as profoundly lonely, and it was pretty reasonable to want something close to human contact. She felt a little flutter in her stomach as the other woman visibly relaxed.

“I am so glad,” Marianne said, relieved. “It was not my intent to upset you.”

“Yeah, for sure, I believe you!” Hilda insisted, then looked down at the ice floating in her bath. “But uh…what should I do now? I…think you took my clothes somewhere?” She was careful to keep her tone even, not letting even a hint of irritation creep into her words. It was hard, because she _was_ actually a little annoyed about her clothes; not having them left her feeling even more stuck than she already was.

Marianne nodded. “Yes. They were wet, and cold, so I put them by the fire to dry. I hope that was alright.”

“Oh. That was really thoughtful of you, thanks,” Hilda said, blinking in surprise. “But I don’t have anything else to wear, and this tub is kinda cold now, and I definitely don’t want to end up back where I started, you know? Hypothermia is _so_ not a good look on me. Any ideas?”

Marianne seemed to consider it for a moment, then nodded again. “Yes, we could go rest by the fire as well. I will keep you company through the night, so you don’t have to worry, Hilda.” Marianne gave her a soft smile, then beckoned her closer. “It’s the least I can do, I think.”

At that point, Hilda was pretty sure that Marianne, whatever she was, didn’t mean her any active harm, and it seemed like her path through the night was gonna be pretty easy. All she had to do was stay there, wait for the snowstorm to pass, keep Marianne happy until dawn, and then figure out how to find her way back to Holst and Balthus. Super simple!

Hilda stood up on legs that were still a little more shaky than she would have liked—though from cold or fear, it was hard to say—and braced herself against the rim of the tub with her hands. She was very careful as she stepped out, because the last thing she needed was to survive a snowstorm on a mountain, then slip and fall and break her neck. That would be like, _massively_ embarrassing. Once her feet were beneath her, she let go of the tub, fighting back her impulse to cover herself with her arms once more. Marianne had already seen her naked; there wasn’t really anything else to hide, at that point.

Marianne waited patiently for her to exit the tub, nodded approvingly, and took a couple of steps backward toward the door. Hilda noticed, as she did, that her bare feet didn’t make even the tiniest of noises on the floor. It was as if she was a ghost or something, and Hilda was so preoccupied with the idea that she completely forgot about the patch of ice on the floor where her clothes had been.

Her left foot planted down on the ice and then swung out from under her as though she were a cartoon character slipping on a banana peel. “Oh _fuck_!” she cried in alarm, her arms going out and flailing aimlessly to try to find something she could catch herself on. She missed the tub and the sink both, and as she closed her eyes and prepared to eat shit on the hard floor of the bathroom, something caught her.

“Oh goodness, please be careful,” Marianne chastised, as she slipped her arms gracefully under Hilda’s and kept her upright with a gentle strength that was belied by her size. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have thought it was someone big and tough like Holst or Balthus, based on just how easily her weight—a svelte one hundred thirty-five pounds, thank you very much—was supported in those arms.

She also noticed how cold Marianne was, because holy _shit_ , was she cold. It felt like Hilda had just been picked up and hugged by a fridge; the sudden shock against her wet skin was enough to make her gasp and stiffen. Marianne hoisted Hilda to her feet, and didn’t let go until Hilda seemed stable enough to remain that way. She took another step back toward the door, like she just realized she’d made some kind of mistake.

“Ah, Hilda, I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to touch you without permission, I know that scared you earlier! I just didn’t want you to get hurt, and-” Hilda cut her off with a quick wave of her hand.

“No, it’s cold—I mean it’s cool, it’s fine, don’t worry about it. You kept me from getting hurt,” she said, chewing on her next words. She wasn’t sure if asking personal questions about Marianne would trigger any negative feelings that might make her freeze up, but her curiosity got the better of her. “Are you like, _always_ cold?” Hilda asked, hesitantly. “I…I mean, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, I just wanna learn more about you is all.”

Sorrow briefly crossed Marianne’s face, but it was gone before Hilda could be _entirely_ sure what she saw. “I am, yes,” she said quietly, once again not meeting Hilda’s eye. She kept her gaze trained on the floor like she was trying to pick apart the hardwood with her eyes. “I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable. It’s just what I am; I can’t help it.”

Hilda nodded, keeping her expression neutral, but gentle. “That sounds really hard, Marianne, I’m sorry. Lets go sit by the fire, okay?”

Marianne looked up at Hilda, as though she was surprised. They shared a moment of uncomfortable silence together, while Marianne studied Hilda’s face, looking her over as though she were some fascinating little animal that she didn’t understand half as well as she wanted to. It was enough to make Hilda fidget a little bit, a problem which was probably only amplified by the fact that she was still standing there stark naked in front of a creepy ghost-girl-monster-thing. She cleared her throat, pointedly, and Marianne blinked at her.

“Oh, I’m sorry, yes. Let’s go.”

She turned around, her movements graceful and gentle, though somehow still lacking in confidence, and opened the door, drifting languorously out into the living room. Hilda followed, taking note of something weird about the way Marianne walked. It wasn’t like…scary or anything, but it took her a moment of observation before she figured it out.

Her feet didn’t touch the ground. That also explained, Hilda guessed, why she hadn’t seen a second set of footsteps out in the snow, and why she hadn’t heard anyone walking around in the bathroom behind her while she was soaking. Kinda hard to make noise and footprints if a person doesn’t actually _walk_.

No, Marianne actually glided, her head steady, her shoulders even, her eyes down, and because of the way her lovely silken gown drifted about her as she did, it made it look like she was being carried on the wind. It was a striking image, and despite the chill, one entirely unrelated to cold, that trickled down Hilda’s spine, she found herself mesmerized as she watched Marianne move around.

She kept watching as she stepped out of the bathroom, and the warm glow of the fire immediately washed over her. It was surprisingly bright, and surprisingly _warm_ for how small it was, but she supposed that probably had to do with the size of the space they were in. It wasn’t _quite_ as good as central heating, but she figured it was about the closest a person could get when they were stuck way the hell out _here_ , and she was grateful for it. Even though she hadn’t really been in danger since she got into the bath, she was still not the kind of person who liked being chilly, so it was a welcome relief.

Hilda practically _leapt_ from the threshold of the once-humid bathroom and out to the area by the fire, wanting to spend as little time away from sources of warmth as possible, and was absolutely delighted to find that there was a blanket draped over the back of the couch. The furniture itself was a scant five feet or so away from the fire, and so once she had flopped down onto those cushions and wrapped the blanket around herself in a motion not unlike twirling spaghetti around a fork, she finally started to feel a little bit cozy. She looked up at Marianne and got an amused stare in return.

“I’m glad you’re a little more comfortable,” Marianne said, and there was almost a glow in her voice as she said it, as though the thing she wanted most in the whole world was to see Hilda wrapped up tight like a warm, comfy pink burrito. “I had to go find the blanket, but I thought you might want something to cover up with and I…well…”

Hilda wasn’t entirely sure, but she was _pretty_ convinced that there was just the tiniest, littlest, most _teeny_ bit of color creeping into Marianne’s cheeks. She cocked an eyebrow. “You what?”

“W-well…” Marianne began, fidgeting in much the same way that she had before. “You’re…” She looked as though she was struggling to find the right word, and nearly _whispered_ it when she did, as though she didn’t want anyone to overhear. “You’re _naked_.”

Suddenly, a whole bunch of things clicked into place in Hilda’s head, and a plan began to form. She knew why Marianne had been so much more nervous once she was visible. She knew why she’d gone to find the blanket. And, most importantly?

She knew _exactly_ how she was going to keep Marianne happy and relaxed that night. Hilda smiled, wide and wicked.

“Am I?” she asked, batting her eyelashes innocently up at her companion. “I mean, I have a blanket on, right? So I’m not _totally_ naked. And besides, I’m sure you’ve seen naked girls before. Like, probably a lot. You’re quite the looker yourself, after all.”

Marianne _gasped_ and dear Goddess, if Hilda could bottle that sound and listen to it every day, she’d be a happy woman; it was _so_ fucking cute. So she continued. “Or…no? Have you not seen a whole lot of naked girls?”

A whimper, a shake of the head, and Hilda knew Marianne was wrapped around her finger. “N-no, not really. I mean, maybe, but I don’t remember and—”

“Do you wanna?”

There was another moment of tension so thick that Hilda could cut it with a knife, and she began to consider a potential problem with her plan. It was possible, and probable, that she could make Marianne happy and calm this way, but it was also possible that the creature would panic and freeze everything in this room completely solid in the following breakdown. Hilda began to sweat, hoping desperately for the former outcome, and not the latter.

Slowly, painfully slowly, and hiding her mouth and nose behind her hands, Marianne nodded. “If…If that’s okay. You’re very pretty, Hilda,” she said, and she sounded so mousy, so precious, Hilda just wanted to scoop her up and…Okay, yeah, maybe she had _some_ ulterior motives here, beyond just keeping Marianne chilled out in a figurative, nonliteral kind of way.

“Well, I think I can probably do without the blanket for a little bit. The fire’s really nice and warm, you did a good job with it,” Hilda teased, pulling the blanket off herself bit by bit. She did it slowly, frustratingly so, while Marianne watched her from behind her hands. Hilda wouldn’t have been surprised if Marianne literally started steaming, but she simply stood there, nervous, watching, as Hilda became less and less covered.

The bathroom had been kind of dark, and she hadn’t been in the firelight for long before she covered herself up, so when the blanket was gone, Marianne was able to see her, clearly, proudly, and brazenly, for the first time. “Well, whaddya think?” Hilda asked, laying out on the couch and propping her chin up on her hand. “Am I looking as hot as I think I’m looking?”

“Well!” Marianne whined, her voice high and strained. “You’re very pretty, as I said before, and…and…” her eyes roamed over Hilda’s body, and Hilda let out a little sigh of relief as she realized her plan was going to work, and not end with her as a Hildacicle. “And I…oh, goodness.”

Her grin, of course, got twice as cocky and three times as stupid. “Wow, you’re all flustered. I mean, you saw me in the bath, right?”

“That was _different_!” her companion protested. “You are absolutely…”

“Breathtaking? Gorgeous? Lovely? A total cutie-pie?” Hilda supplied. Marianne groaned.

“Shameless!” she finished, visibly exasperated and Hilda burst out laughing.

It felt good, really, to have that laugh. She’d been so tense for what felt like hours, and her back-and-forth with Marianne was doing wonders to help her feel less terrified, more like she was in control of the situation. “Well, if this already has you so out-of-sorts, I probably shouldn’t go any further, should I?”

Marianne eyed her skeptically, and Hilda took very careful note of where those eyes went. “…further?” she asked, sounding cautiously curious. Hilda nodded.

“Yeah, I mean, you totally saved me, so I was gonna ask if you wanted a kiss for your trouble. That’s what heroes get when they save a damsel in distress, isn’t it?”

At that, Marianne looked away, and Hilda felt the mood in the room smash to pieces like a mirror being dashed against a pile of rocks, and she knew she was going to have to step carefully to avoid slicing herself on any of the shards. The temperature in the room dropped perceptibly. “I’m not a hero…” Marianne mumbled.

“What? How are you not a hero? You saved my _life,_ Marianne!” Hilda insisted, and the temperature dropped even lower. She bit her lip. Okay, wrong move.

Marianne’s eyes went cloudy, and tears like sleet dropped from them and to the floor. “No, Hilda, I…I’m so sorry, it’s my fault you’re here in the first place.”

Her stomach sank like a stone. “How…how is it your fault?” Hilda asked, cautiously, and the temperature dropped _again_ as Marianne closed her eyes.

“I…” she began, hesitant, tremulous. “I saw you out there, on the ski trails, with your companions. I saw you, and I saw you smiling and laughing and having so much fun with them, and…and I saw how pretty you were, and I saw your eyes, and then you went off the trail and I…”

“You, what, guided me here? Marianne, you still _saved me_ , I would have died in that blizzard if not for-”

Marianne turned, her eyes snapping open, blazing with arctic cold. It was like Hilda had stepped out into the blizzard again, but this time without even her clothing to protect her. She could hear the wind howling in her ears, ripping at her eyes and cheeks once more, could see ice beginning to creep across the hard surfaces on the furniture, could _feel_ the leftover droplets of water from the bath freezing on her skin, and the cold that blew through the room swallowed even the silence between them, turning it into something deep and dead.

Suddenly, Marianne looked far less human. Her skin, once pale, seemed to be nearly _glowing_ with a cold, piercing light. Her eyes blazed empty and white with no pupil or iris, her hair blew around her as though caught in the whipping gales outside, and she clenched her arms before her chest as she tried to keep some pain, held deep within her, from spilling out. “You don’t under _stand_ ,” she choked, her once-timid voice colored with the sound of glaciers cracking apart, her words an avalanche bearing down on Hilda. “ _I_ brought the blizzard _. I_ separated you from them _. I_ almost _killed_ you, because I wanted you for _myself!”_

Hilda froze, whimpering softly. The reality of what had happened that day finally began to sink in at Marianne’s half-shouted confession. As it all fell into place, Hilda ran through a whole _bunch_ of emotions, all at once. Angry, for being manipulated. Sad, for Marianne. Scared, because she was stuck in that cabin with someone, or some _thing_ , that could summon blizzards on a whim. Those emotions whirled through her with a force not unlike that winter gale that Marianne had summoned, but she forced them aside for now. She had to do something about this.

Every instinct she had was telling her to get up and _go_ , to flee, to get as far away from this terrifying creature as possible. Her heart was pounding, her mind was _screaming_ , and just as she thought she might be able to pull herself away, something snapped. She knew what she had to do to be safe, and Goddess, it was going to be _way_ more challenging than running away.

Hilda fought her chattering teeth, pushed against the cold wind blowing through the cabin that _somehow_ didn’t put the fire out, and stood up from the couch. She was afraid, true—this was exactly the outcome she had been trying to prevent—and while a part of her was horrified at Marianne’s words, at the realization that she was speaking the truth, the greater part of her ached.

Because despite the guilt and anger behind Marianne’s statement, there was agony, unlike anything Hilda had ever heard. It was deep and solid and jagged as an icicle sharpened to a needlepoint, and it drove into Hilda with staggering force.

She liked to think she was a pretty good judge of character, and Marianne didn’t strike her as half as monstrous as she seemed to think she was. Marianne was scared, she was horribly lonely, and she’d seen a chance for a connection, something to ease the pain of her solitude, and she’d taken it. She’d made a bad choice, but, well, who hadn’t? Let she who has never summoned a blizzard to get a date cast the first stone, right?

So she did the first thing that came to mind, something she suspected might keep both of them safe, and something she’d sure as hell planned to do anyway. Hilda pushed herself up from the couch, took two steps forward, reached out, and grabbed Marianne’s ice-cold form by the upper arms. The icy wind abated, just for a moment, but a moment was all Hilda needed. She pulled Marianne close, lined herself up properly, and kissed her, hard and full, on the lips.

Everything went still. Hilda’s lips pressed against Marianne’s, and though there was an initial moment of resistance, it was _only_ a moment, and Marianne melted against her without protesting. Her lips were cold, as was the rest of her, but Hilda didn’t care. She was certainly less cold than the room around them, and so Hilda continued, lowering her hands from Marianne’s arms to her sides, above her hips, keeping her close and kissing her like a slow-dance partner at the prom. Marianne whimpered, went limp, and the fire began to warm the room again as the storm completely dissipated.

Marianne’s eyes blinked open and Hilda could see, with a flutter of relief, that they had returned to normal: deep, gentle pools that she could already feel herself falling into. Hilda leaned back just a bit, but left her hands there on Marianne’s torso.

“Uh. Sorry. I just…needed you to calm down,” Hilda said, still shivering from the cold of Marianne’s touch. “Was that bad?”

When Marianne spoke again, she sounded dazed, far away. “Wh…what? Hm? Oh…yes. That was okay.”

“You sound like you’re definitely _not_ okay right now, though.”

Marianne deflated, aghast, though she didn’t whip up a storm again. “I…Hilda, I hurt you. I almost _killed_ you! And now you’re stuck here with me all night. How are you not angry with me? Why would you _kiss_ me?”

“Okay, well, first off,” Hilda said, smiling weakly. “We’ve all done stupid stuff when confronted with a pretty enough face. And like…I’m fine now, right? I’m okay. And…I’m glad I met you. You’re nice, even if you don’t think you are.”

“We’re all done ‘stupid stuff’?” Marianne asked, sounding skeptical. “Like what? Have you ever put someone’s life in danger? Because you saw a ‘pretty face’?”

Hilda nodded gravely. “Yeah, I have.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. This one time, I saw a girl so pretty that, even though she was kind of scary, and probably like a snow-ghost or something, I risked turning into the world’s cutest ice sculpture to kiss her,” Hilda said, her tone going from serious to teasing halfway through her sentence. Marianne gave her a half-hearted, exhausted little laugh.

“You’re ridiculous, Hilda,” she said. “But…thank you. I-”

Hilda interrupted her quickly, before she could apologize any more. It didn’t seem like it’d go anywhere positive if she did. “Wanna do it again?”

“W-what?” Marianne asked, stunned.

“Wanna kiss again? That was pretty cool, no pun intended. I’ve never kissed someone so chilly before, and I’d like to try it a second time.” Then she added, quickly, “My interest is exclusively academic, of course.”

Mariann giggled. “Academic, I’m certain. But…Hilda. When you kissed me, I felt…uh…”

As she trailed off, Hilda cocked an eyebrow. “Felt what? Like, turned on? Cause that’s normal when you kiss someone, I promise.”

“N-no! Not that, it was-“

“Oh, so it didn’t turn you on? Wow, rude.”

“ _Hilda_ . That’s not what I meant! I felt…” she frowned, pensive. “I felt _warm_ . That’s…not normal. I don’t think I’ve ever felt _warm_ before. It was…inside me, and outside, too.”

Hilda hummed, thoughtful. “Well, that’s pretty wild. Guess we just have to keep testing it out.”

“If…if you’re sure you want to, then-”

Yep, cool, permission. That’s all Hilda was waiting for. She leaned forward and kissed Marianne again, which was a distinctly more pleasant experience when there weren’t thirty mile-per-hour winds blowing ice all around her. She slipped her hands down onto Marianne’s hips, squeezing lightly and drawing a whine from the other woman, one that was enough of an opportunity for Hilda to slide her tongue forward between Marianne’s lips.

She tasted of…peppermint, and of cool, clean air, and it was absolutely _divine_ . What was more, wherever she touched Marianne felt chilly at first, but within moments, not only was the spot warmed by Hilda’s own body heat; it felt like Marianne was _radiating_ heat, as well. She figured that had to be what she meant when Marianne said she felt warmth, and Hilda wanted to give her all the warmth she could.

Hilda kept kissing her, slowly, languidly, letting Marianne’s initial clumsiness fade and give way to tentative curiosity and exploration, while she shifted back, sliding toward the couch. She held Marianne tight, praying that she was as light as she felt, and eased herself down to sit, bringing her partner with her.

Effortlessly, as though she’d been waiting for Hilda to do so, Marianne went down, sliding onto her lap and straddling her while they kissed, never breaking the embrace the whole time. For _supposedly_ being so lonely, Marianne sure knew how to follow a lead. Hilda sure wasn’t about to complain about that, though, as she kissed warmth into Marianne with all the passion and fear and excitement she could muster. She’d had a lot of feelings that day, and she worked through them by kissing Marianne harder than she’d ever kissed anyone before.

Hilda nipped at Marianne’s lip, drawing a gasp from the other woman, and pulled back, looking her in the eyes. While Hilda was breathing hard, Marianne wasn’t breathing _at all_. It was strange, she supposed that she hadn’t really been close enough to notice that before, and it only added to the odd, ethereal feel of her.

However, there _were_ a few signs of arousal showing on Marianne quite plainly. Her eyes were half-lidded, her lip was trembling, and her hands had found their way to Hilda’s shoulders at some point while they had kissed; Marianne’s chilly fingers gripped her tight, as though _Hilda_ was the one who might float away. “Hey, you okay?” Hilda asked, running her hand up Marianne’s side, from her hip to just below her ribs and making her shudder. “Is _this_ okay?”

Marianne didn’t speak; but she nodded enthusiastically, her hair bouncing. It was cute, Hilda thought, how _into_ this Marianne seemed to be. Her aloofness was melting away, bit by bit, kiss by kiss, and now she resembled a curious puppy more than anything. Hilda wondered whether Marianne ever _had_ been with anyone like this. If she was a ghost like Hilda suspected, then maybe she had been while she was alive? Perhaps she’d lured someone else here before, maybe _lots_ of someones, and this was all just a ruse to get Hilda to let her defenses down so Marianne could like… _eat_ her, or something. That thought was…less pleasant. She pushed it away.

“I’m glad,” Hilda murmured, tightening her grip on Marianne. “Cause uh…I really wanna do more. Do you know what I mean?”

She got a nervous smile in return, the expression looking strange, but charming, on Marianne’s face. “Hilda, while I-I’m usually rather lonely out here, I’m not _naïve_ ,” she said, softly, her voice shaky. “I think I want that?”

Hilda ducked in, pressing a kiss to Marianne’s neck, then nibbling the sensitive skin there. Marianne whimpered. “You _think_ you want that? Marianne, I need you to be a little more decisive. I wanna know that you _really_ want this.”

Marianne hissed as Hilda sunk her teeth into her neck once more, a little harder this time. “Okay, okay, yes, Hilda,” she said, her grip tightening on Hilda’s shoulders. “I…I want to do more. I want to do whatever you want to do.”

“Cool,” Hilda breathed against Marianne’s skin. She giggled at her own joke again, though her partner didn’t seem to catch it. “Well, let’s see just how much I can warm you up.”

She felt Marianne nod, though she didn’t see it, and she plopped one more kiss against her for good measure before pulling back to look her in the eyes again. Hilda looked down, and back up, and bit her lip, considering what to do next. Marianne seemed to notice she was deep in thought, and canted her head, curious. “Is everything alright?”

“Huh? Yeah, it’s fine, I’m just…” She fumbled her words for a moment. “Well, this is usually the part where I would start undressing you, but I don’t know _how_. I mean is this…?” She reached up for Marianne’s robe-like garment and felt her fingers pass right through it, as though it wasn’t even there. “Yeah, dude, what the fuck is up with this? I can definitely feel you sitting on my lap, but I can’t touch your clothes.”

Marianne tittered, and there was a nervous edge to it. “Oh, yes, let me see…” she said, closing her eyes and frowning as she concentrated. One second, the robe was there, and the next, it just…wasn’t, anymore. Hilda blinked in surprise as Marianne now sat on her lap completely, utterly, starkly naked.

“Alright, that’s weird, but it definitely saves me some time,” Hilda mused, slipping her hands up to cup Marianne’s chest, flicking her thumbs over her partner’s nipples playfully. “Wish _I_ could do that.”

The other woman didn’t seem to be paying terribly close attention to what Hilda was saying, though, as she squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered at Hilda’s ministrations, gasping at the tiny, precise movements of Hilda’s fingers. “Oh, Hilda…I…I’ve never…” she muttered, gripping tight, eyes still shut. “That feels quite nice.”

“Goddess, you’re adorable,” Hilda replied, smirking and repeating the gesture, which, in turn, made Marianne repeat the sound. “I bet I can get all kinds of fun noises out of you if I work hard enough at it,” she teased. Marianne gave her a frustrated groan.

“H-Hilda, please don’t tease me, I’m nervous enough as it is…” she said, opening her eyes and giving Hilda a big, plaintive, puppy-dog look that Hilda didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of resisting. “But…be gentle?”

Hilda rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I guess,” she said, drawing out the last word and making it clear that gentleness would absolutely not be a problem. It was hard to remind herself that Marianne was dangerous and did, actually, in fact, almost kill her, when she looked at her like that. “So, miss Marianne…” Hilda said, her tone casual. “What would you like me to do, gently? Do you mind telling me?”

One of Hilda’s hands trailed down, and she dragged one finger, just the tip, barely even the nail, from between Marianne’s breasts down to her navel. Marianne shuddered. “Hilda, please, you know already!”

“Maybe,” Hilda graciously allowed, tracing that single finger in easy, lazy circles on Marianne’s lower stomach. “But maybe I wanna hear you say it. Maybe I think it’s hotter when you ask.”

Marianne fidgeted, but Hilda held firm, the grin on her face widening as her finger would occasionally dip just a _tiny_ bit lower on subsequent passes. “Please,” Marianne begged, barely above a whisper. “I…I want you to touch me. However you want to, but I want you to touch me. I _need_ you to.”

“Well, how can I say no to _that_? You even said please! Such a good girl, so polite.”

Hilda slipped her hand down a few inches more, reaching Marianne’s slit. It was an odd sensation, because while Marianne’s core was not warm, she _was_ noticeably slick. That made the next part easier, as her fingers trailed across the woman’s folds, drawing a broken little whimper from somewhere deep inside Marianne. She would have to save questions for how exactly Marianne’s body worked for later, because she had some more important things to attend to, at that particular moment.

A few back-and-forth motions against Marianne were enough to get her whining softly in rhythm, and she leaned forward, draping her arms over Hilda and nestling her face into Hilda’s neck. It was adorable, Hilda decided, as she continued to work Marianne over, enjoying the forward buck of her hips and the little breathless moans Marianne gave against her neck.

It really didn’t take much to get Marianne all fired up, and it only took a minute or so before Marianne had reached up and buried a hand in her hair, squeezing tight, tugging softly every time Hilda brushed past or against her clit. The angle was a little difficult, but once contact with Hilda’s hand had warmed Marianne up a little, she slipped one, then two fingers inside her. Marianne yelped and pulled Hilda’s hair hard enough that it _hurt_ , but that was okay. One, Hilda was actually kinda into that, and two, it let her know she was doing something _very_ right.

Marianne rode Hilda’s fingers for another minute or so, moving her hips in tandem with the motions of Hilda’s wrist, and her cries began to increase steadily in pitch and desperation. It was intoxicating, and Hilda knew _exactly_ what she wanted to do next.

“Hey Marianne,” she purred in her partner’s ear, so close that Marianne would be able to feel the wind off Hilda’s words. “Can I eat you out? I _really_ want to.”

A furious nod confirmed that Marianne also _really_ wanted Hilda to do that. So, like the ever-polite and gracious guest she was, Hilda slipped her hand out from between Marianne’s legs—earning another precious little whine for it—and picked her up, setting her down on the couch. Marianne leaned back against the cushions, seemingly still a little dazed from everything that had happened so far, and Hilda slipped down to the floor and between her legs in the space of a heartbeat.

Hilda laced her fingers together and put her hands on Marianne’s knee, then propped her chin up on top of them. “How ya doin’ up there?” she asked, winking. “Having fun?”

Her partner groaned in frustration and exasperation, and Hilda only smiled wider. “Hilda, please, you…you’ve already gotten me so…so…”

“Hot? Horny?” Hilda offered, and she _swore_ she could see a light blush dusting Marianne’s cheeks.

“Um…Aroused, yes. C-Could you please…keep going?”

“Well, only since you asked so nice.” Hilda leaned back on her knees, unlaced her hands, and ran them up Marianne’s thighs, gently nudging them apart. Marianne obliged, and Hilda planted a soft, tiny kiss on the inside of Marianne’s right leg. Then another, further up the thigh. Then a third, and she paired that one with a small bite as well. Marianne squeaked, sliding one hand forward onto Hilda’s head, trying to guide her forward. Hilda, though, moved at her own pace, and she didn’t budge an inch more than she wanted to.

Marianne whimpered again, and Hilda noticed that she was trembling slightly. Nice. “Please, Hilda,” she implored once more, and Hilda decided to have a little mercy on her. She leaned the rest of the way forward, moving her hands up and behind Marianne’s back, resting them on her waist and nudging her up a little more to the edge of the couch. Once Marianne was within reach, Hilda closed the last few inches and dragged her tongue up Marianne’s slit, once, slowly, decisively, and getting a sharp little cry in return. “Oh…oh Hilda, goodness, that feels nice,” Marianne breathed.

“I’m just gettin’ started,” Hilda assured her, then dove in once more, as though there was no place on Earth she would rather be. At that moment, honestly, she couldn’t say that there was.

She lapped up at Marianne’s clit with the tip of her tongue, taking her time with it, the experience of going down on such a chilly body a new one that she wanted to savor. Aside from the temperature, though, Marianne tasted just like any other woman, and she _responded_ just like any other would as well. Hilda knew she was good at what she did, but Marianne’s little squeaks and whines were music to her ears nonetheless.

Ramping up just a little, she put her lips to that sensitive nub and sucked lightly, flicking her tongue at it as she did, and Marianne responded by clenching her thighs tighter around Hilda’s ears. She wondered, as that pressure increased, if Marianne was like…super strong or something. Because if she was, it was quite possible she’d pop Hilda’s head like a watermelon.

What a way to go though, huh?

Hilda continued as Marianne changed positions, moving her legs up to drape over Hilda’s shoulders and using them to keep Hilda close, digging her heel into her back. That, Hilda reflected, was _super_ hot, so she decided to reward the act by slipping her hands down slightly to the curve of Marianne’s backside and squeezing, digging her nails in slightly, and causing Marianne to cry out in surprise.

“Hilda, oh, goodness, Hilda,” she groaned, her words almost like a mantra. “Oh, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this good before, there’s…there’s something…”

Taking that as her signal to escalate even further, she went at Marianne with all she had, using every trick she’d learned in her sordid life, and dragging her partner swiftly to the edge of climax. She didn’t let up for even a second, even as she felt herself begin to get dizzy from a lack of air, even as her tongue started to feel thick in her mouth, because she wanted to give Marianne the best Goddess-damned orgasm of her…life? Unlife? Whatever.

By the sound and feel of it, she succeeded. Marianne’s cries reached a fever pitch before long, and Hilda grinned internally as she felt Marianne go tense, twitchy, and then limp while she cried Hilda’s name once more, loud enough that Hilda found herself relieved that she had some nice, soft, chilly earmuffs snugly hugging either side of her head.

When Marianne finally relaxed onto the couch with all the rigidity of a wet noodle, Hilda practically fell backwards onto the floor, panting hard in an attempt to catch her breath. The two of them simply watched each other quietly for several minutes, both enjoying the view rather thoroughly. Finally, Hilda broke the silence with a weak, breathless little laugh. “Well. That was…something,” she said, unable to keep the smile from her face.

“Indeed. Hilda, that was lovely.” Marianne’s eyes trailed down Hilda’s body, between her legs. “Should…should I…?”

Hilda waved her off. “Nah, just…give it a couple minutes. I can’t really leave until morning, right? We’ve got a whole night ahead of us, we have time. Let me catch my breath first.”

Marianne’s face fell. “Yes, of course. We have time.” 

It only took her a moment to realize why the mood in the room had changed so suddenly. Hilda would be leaving in the morning. She had to, if for no other reason than her need for food, and because people would be worried about her. Looking down, away from Marianne, she considered her options.

“I don’t suppose you can like…come with me, can you?” Hilda asked, hopeful. “Did getting kissed by a fair maiden break a curse or something, and now you can leave?”

The other woman shook her head. “No, it…it doesn’t work that way. I’m bound to this mountain; I can only go so far away before I begin to feel faint, and when I lose consciousness, I wake up here in this cabin again. I’ve tried many, many times.”

Hilda realized the implication in those words, and her heart broke cleanly in half. Tears welled up in her eyes and threatened to spill over before she blinked them insistently away. She didn’t want Marianne to see that. She understood why Marianne couldn’t remember anything before the cabin. She understood why Marianne couldn’t ever leave.

She understood, too, with a clarity that felt like an icicle being driven into her chest, that she could have easily met the same fate had Marianne not intervened.

Another silence. Hilda’s brain worked overtime as she tried to figure out something, _anything_ that might let this, the comfort she could bring to Marianne in her solitude, go beyond that night. Marianne was…well, she was lovely. And sweet, despite the definite fuckup that had been trapping Hilda and bringing her here. Neither of them wanted that to be it, but both of them came to the same conclusion.

“I think…perhaps we ought to just enjoy the time we have,” Marianne said, _sotto voce_. Hilda closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath before opening them. She was right, of course, but Hilda hated it.

“Yeah. So. Round two?” she asked, shoving the twinge of pain somewhere deep within, where she wouldn’t have to address it for now. She put on her best, stupidest, cockiest smile. “It’s been a long day, but I think I have at least a few more in me.”

Marianne smiled in return, hers genuine, and warmer than anything else about her. To enjoy what time they had, _indeed_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the denouement, going up tomorrow! And congrats to anyone who guessed "Yuki-Onna" as the monster! Thanks as always to my fabulous beta [tansybells](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/tansybells/pseuds/tansybells). Feel free to come be snowed in with me on twitter [@spiderlilywrite](https://twitter.com/spiderlilywrite)!


	3. Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hilda makes a choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, here's the final chapter of the piece. I hope you really like it. I know I really liked writing it.

Hilda awoke the next morning to a dead-silent room and a body that ached so badly, she was half-certain she would fall apart as soon as she rolled off the couch. She groaned in pain, and in frustration, and in defiance, because she knew she was going to have to get up _eventually_ , but at the moment, she really didn’t want to. Instead, she decided to take inventory.

She was still naked, that much was pretty obvious, and it hadn’t been unexpected. Her clothes had still been a little bit damp by the time she was too tired to keep her eyes open, and she’d elected to just leave them by the fire ‘til morning. They were probably dry by now, she noted, rolling over to look at where each article of clothing was carefully laid out on the floor of the cabin, uncrumpled and unwrinkled. That was awfully nice of…

Of Marianne.

The moment the name drifted to mind, Hilda mentally recoiled, like she’d just laid her hand on a hot stove. There was a pain that went further than her body aches, nestled deep in the pit of her stomach. An emptiness, a profound, deep longing that went _way_ beyond what she would expect after what amounted to a one-night-stand, something more akin to a serious breakup, or the loss of a best friend. It was such an intense and unexpected grief that she felt nauseous.

Hilda drew the blanket tighter and wept quietly, for a moment. She allowed herself that much.

Through her tears, she looked to the fireplace set into the wall, and noticed that the fire was still burning, though it was low, barely more than coals, and chill was beginning to seep into the room like water filling a sinking ship. When she saw that, the pain within her twisted and squirmed as she remembered the last words they’d spoken before she’d lost consciousness.

_“Go to sleep, Hilda_ ,” _said Marianne, her voice soft and reassuring, as she brushed a lock of hair away from the reclining and exhausted Hilda’s face. “I’ll keep the fire going for you, tonight. You’ll be safe.”_

_“I…guess that makes sense. You probably don’t need sleep, huh?”_

_Marianne shook her head, smiling sadly. “No, lucky for you. I’ll be gone by the time you wake up; it’s hard for me to make myself seen during the day. But I’ll still be watching over you, even then. I promise.”_

_Hilda’s eyes brimmed with tears as she realized what that meant. “So…I won’t see you again,” she mumbled, drawing the blanket close, already feeling sleep begin to claim her as Marianne stroked her hair. “I wish I didn’t have to go. To leave you here all by yourself. I’ll miss you.”_

_A single icy droplet landed on Hilda’s cheek. She didn’t look up. “But you_ do _have to, Hilda. There are people waiting for you.” Marianne paused, as though gathering the strength to speak. When she did, her voice was shaky, but filled with resolve._

_“I am so glad I got to meet you, Hilda, and I have had a wonderful night. Now go to sleep. I promised I would take good care of you, and I will.”_

As she watched the last of the fire burn down, she realized that it would have been easy for Marianne to keep her. She simply would have had to let the fire burn away in the night, let the cold return and take Hilda’s life. Hilda would have probably slept through the whole thing, passed away in the dark, and been bound here, in this cabin, just like Marianne. Marianne wouldn’t have to be _alone_ anymore.

Her weeping became hard, hiccupping sobs. It wasn’t _fair._ It wasn’t _fair_ that Marianne had to be stuck out here, all by herself. It wasn’t _fair_ that someone so sweet, so kind, so gentle, would have to resort to extremes just to find a friend for a few hours. It absolutely _sucked_.

But…Marianne had made her choice. She had done what she’d said she would do; she’d kept Hilda safe all night, dutifully tended the fire, and had made sure that Hilda would be able to return to safety come morning. Hilda needed to get up, get her clothes on, and get moving before the returning cold made Marianne’s sacrifice a moot point.

She sniffed, reaching up and drying her eyes with the back of her hand, and cast the blankets off and away.

It didn’t take her long to get dressed, especially with the motivation of the air growing frigid around her. It probably ended up being less than a minute, all told, which had to be the _absolute_ fastest Hilda had ever gotten ready to go out in the morning.

Once she’d retrieved some of the now-chilly water from the bathtub and doused the fire, she went to the door of the cabin, put a hand on it, and looked behind her. Hilda spent a good, solid several minutes there, watching the still, empty, deathly silent cabin. She wasn’t sure why. Perhaps she hoped that Marianne would come drifting out from just out of sight to kiss her goodbye. But that was silly.

“I’ll miss you,” Hilda said, echoing her words from the night before. “And…I’ll remember you.”

~❦~

It ended up being a pretty short trip from the cabin to the lodge. Within about fifteen minutes of walking aimlessly through the woods, she could see the lodge, appearing as a small wooden box with plumes of smoke issuing from the top, despite it actually being more than a couple miles away. The walk back was easier than she’d have expected, too, given that it was mostly downhill and she could keep her eyes on the prize the whole time. Amazing, how much less difficult it was to navigate without a blizzard knocking her on her ass.

She stumbled into the lobby somewhere around eight in the morning, based on a quick half-glance at the grandfather clock there, and she could see the lodge’s little cafeteria-slash-food court area beyond the set of double doors just past the reception desk.

She squinted, and sure enough, she could see Balthus and Holst hunched over two untouched plates of food at a table in the corner. The two of them were sitting there, talking about something that seemed pretty serious. It _had_ to be serious, for them to not be eating their breakfast, and she realized with a start that they were probably talking about _her_.

Not wanting them to have to worry a second longer than necessary, Hilda pushed through the doors and into the busy room, calling out to them the second she was inside.

“Hey, Holst Goneril! Balthus Albrecht!”

Both men looked up with a start, eyes wide, and there were three crashes that silenced the entire room as they shot up from their seats, knocking both chairs and the table between them to the floor without any concern whatsoever for their meals.

Ah. Fuck.

Hilda realized the problem with her approach as two men that would make the average football player look small came charging at her from across the room, nearly sending a poor waitress flying in the process. Simultaneous cries of “Hilda!” resounded, and before she could properly process what the fuck was going on, she was scooped up in two pairs of powerful arms and crushed into a hug that _definitely_ dislocated _something_.

After the two of them had deemed her sufficiently squished and set her back down, the three of them sat down at a different table, and they explained what had happened the night before.

“Your brother and I were out looking for you for like…three hours after you disappeared last night,” Balthus said. The dark circles under both mens’ eyes made it clear that neither of them had slept much at all, and she could hear it in his voice. “It was fucking _nasty_ out there, though.”

Holst nodded in agreement. “We wanted to keep looking, but…we also didn’t want to go missing ourselves and be unable to help you, so we came back to the lodge, told the staff, and were gonna go back out today.” He reached out and ruffled Hilda’s already messy hair, making her cringe away. “And then you just…kinda…showed up. What _happened_ out there, Hilda?”

“I…found a place to hole up,” she said, purposely omitting all the stuff about ghosts and the subsequent banging of those ghosts. “There was an old cabin up there, and there was some firewood, and it totally _sucked_ , but I managed to get inside and warm up before the blizzard got me. I think I actually got more sleep than you guys!”

Balthus and Holst traded looks. Holst shrugged.

“Well, we’re glad you’re back. Goddess, I don’t think I’ve been that worried in my life, Hilda,” Holst admitted, reaching across and giving her arm a squeeze. “Don’t you scare me like that again, okay? No more ski trips, that’s for sure.”

No more ski trips. Hilda looked behind her brother and future brother-in-law, through the big floor-to-ceiling window and at the mountain beyond. There was no way the cabin would be visible from here, she noted. It was tiny and had to be obscured by trees, and she wouldn’t be surprised if nobody _ever_ found it.

Her heart ached, low and deep and agonized. She swallowed a lump in her throat.

“Actually, I think…I wanna come back. Really soon, okay?”

Holst looked at her funny. So did Balthus. She didn’t blame them. “Really?” Balthus said, skeptically. “Even though you kinda almost _died_ in a blizzard?”

Hilda nodded. “Yeah, I dunno…” she said, trailing off. “I think I kinda fell in love.”

It was strange, what happened next, because there were no open windows in the cafeteria. She supposed someone could have come in the front door of the lodge at the same time someone walked from the lobby into the cafeteria. That would be the explanation that made the most sense, after all.

A gust of winter wind blew past the three of them, sending napkins flying from the tabletop and ruffling the hair and clothes of everyone nearby. Her companions looked around in confusion, but nobody else really seemed to notice.

As that little storm swirled around them for a moment, she _swore_ she could feel the ghost of two delicate lips, icy cold, press against her cheek and curl up into a smile.

_“Thank you,”_ said the wind.

“See you later,” Hilda mumbled, putting a hand to her cheek and ignoring the weird looks she got from Holst and Balthus. “I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this made you cry, well, you and me both.  
> Thank you <3

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [tansybells](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/tansybells/pseuds/tansybells) for beta reading as always, and if you'd like to come be snowed in with me on twitter, find me [@spiderlilywrite](https://twitter.com/spiderlilywrite)


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